This invention relates to bale handling apparatus and more particularly, to such apparatus for handling bales of crop material of the rectangular type.
It is common practice for crop material such as straw or hay, to be formed into rectangular bales by a baling machine. Such a baling machine drops completed bales one after another on the ground, unless it is fitted with bale handling equipment, and thus it is necessary to subsequently pick up these individual bales scattered randomly over a field and load them on to a bale wagon, or other vehicle, for transport to a required location.
For many decades relatively small rectangular bales produced by conventional small rectangular balers were popular. Such bales were handled either manually or mechanically. Different types of bale handling equipment have been in use for many years to handle such bales mechanically. However, during recent years new balers producing much larger rectangular bales appeared on the market. Bales produced with such machines can be handled only mechanically. However, the various so-called "medium size" and "large rectangular balers" presently already on the market produce bales of widely different dimensions. As an example, one such baler, which commonly is indicated as a "medium size rectangular baler", produces bales measuring approximately 60 cm by 90 cm and having a length of 1.2 m up to 2.5 m. Another baler, equally identified as a medium size rectangular baler produces bales measuring approximately 90 cm by 90 cm and equally having a length which can vary quite substantially.
Accordingly, there is a need for bale handling equipment which is capable of picking up such individual bales scattered randomly over a field and of organizing them into regular packs for loading onto bale wagon, or other vehicle, for transport to a required location.
One example of known bale handling equipment of the type with which the present invention is concerned, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,538. This equipment comprises three carrier frames on which are mounted respective sets of claws for picking up bales. These claws are designed to pick up three bales disposed in side-by-side relationship. In order to minimize the overall width of such a pack of three bales when picked up by the equipment, primarily to meet official requirements regarding widths of loads, it is necessary to provide relatively elaborate arrangements to effect relative lateral displacement between the three sets of claws. Accordingly, this prior equipment is expensive and furthermore also suffers from the disadvantage that each set of claws has associated with it individually operated hydraulic actuating means for moving the claws of the set into and out of engagement with a bale, and this also increases the complexity and cost of the equipment.
It therefore is an object of the present invention to provide bale handling equipment of the type referred to hereabove which is simple in design and yet versatile in use.